Used this general guide as base.
GENERAL NOTE:
More than any other dungeon, doing Hell Raised on difficulties e5+ requires a lot of coordination, a good amount of assigning functions in the group and callouts. Which is also the reason why not many PUG groups go very far. I will include many bits which are technically not the tank’s responsibilities, but you need to be aware of them and be able to direct your DPS’.
Antimony Ministrix
No change from E1-4 to Elite 5+, except hitting harder and having more HP. She casts Macroshock almost immediately after starting the fight, impair it. She also does that more often than one impair can cover, so unless you have a high-tier impair gadget with a levelled cooldown signet, you need to bring two to this fight. If you can’t, ask a DPS to impair every other Macroshock. Kite the boss out of the big purple AoE as it travels around the area. She can also cast Lifeburn on the tank, which, depending on your consitution and the amount of dps in the group, can be cleansed or ignored. If you need it cleaned, however, make sure you tell another party member to bring one beforehand.
Corroder
No change from E1-4 to Elite 5+, except hitting harder and having more HP. Run down while the DPS’ wait and back up without losing your sprint, making sure to run past the DPS’ so the boss will run past their hiding spot and they can stay behind him (his attacks cleave). If the Corroder did not cast Caustic Outpouring when you ran down, hide behind the bit of cliff on your left once you run back up. He’ll cast it when he sees you, and if you’re just standing out in the open, he might cast Causting Outpouring further away, so that you or the DPS’ won’t have time to get into the safe bubble. Face him directly away from the DPS. He also deals a great amount of damage on higher elites, so I recommend bringing a defensive gadget instead of your impair – nothing to interrupt on this fight.
Hardwired Fleshtank
No change from E1-4 to Elite 5+, except hitting harder and having more HP. You need to impair Searing Brand, which he does more often than one impair can cover, so same deal as with Macroshock on the first boss: bring 2 impairs or ask a DPS to do so. Start at the platform on the left side, in all likelyhood you’ll be able to move from there to middle, to exit, to right side (there is no certain rule for the order that the paltforms catch on fire, though, so be prepared to improvise). This boss also cleaves, so if you have melee DPS in the group, be sure to stand far enough in on platforms so that they can also fit onto it and stay behind the boss. For the same reason, when moving him from platform to platform, try to not run him through the DPS’, if you can avoid it.
Traumadriver
You need an impair for Searing Brand and a Compact Catastrophe Shelter for Molten Metal. Depending on how long your gadget cooldowns are, you might need two Shelters in the group. If you have no melee dps in the group, they can all outrange Molten Metal, and if you are feeling OP for the level that you’re doing, you can choose to not take cleanses, otherwise you’ll also need to ask the DPS to bring them. At higher levels, MM can do 9K of damage even through a shelter, so you may want to suggest to DPS that they up their HP to something around 9500 if they aren't planning to stay out of range.
I find that the best time to run in is when the purple AoEs are on their way back, completely on the left hand side and one or two AoEs have already disappeared from the exit end of the left. Start fight, avoiding the purple stuff, the flames and Stripmine as you go. Impair Searing Brand. Put up shelter(s) for Molten Metal and have the cleansers deal with Lifeburn afterwards. Continue until boss is dead.
Recursia, Many-in-One
Prep work:
Have one of the DPS’ bring a cleanse. If you’re with a group that you know and everyone is confident with the fight, this kind of happens on its own, but if not, you might want to assign sides of the room to each other group member to cover (for example entrance, exit, left, right), without anyone running over to somewhere else. The reason for it becomes apparent later. As the tank, I recommend bringing as many impairs or pulls as humanly possible.
Boss phase:
First and foremost: unlike up to E4, her basic attacks now chain off the tank, so be sure to turn her around right after engaging and move the boss in such a way that you don’t stand too close to the DPS’. This can be tricky, as she moves around quite a lot. Arcane Halocan’t be impaired, so everyone has to get inside the small safe space near her. Impair Macroshock.
Add phase:
When Recursia casts Infernal Criticality (the shield around her) and goes to the middle, IMMEDIATELY dodge towards the nearest outside edge of the room (this also goes for the DPS). Infernal Criticality will afflict everyone with two stacks of Lifeburn, which needs to be cleansed. IC also triggers her to cast Anima Eruption, which is a shield bubble she will cast on the spot a random group member – this shield bubble will stay in place for a time and any Triggerthings that move through it will become protected by a damage reflect shield which will kill the DPS who shoots at it. So effectively you can not kill shielded Triggerthings, but have to wait for it to expire. The further away the shield AoE is from the boss, the more time you will have to kill an add even if he gets the shield at first. This is also the reason why the DPS’ must stay on their respective edges of the room – if people start running across the room, she happens to place Anima Eruption very close to her, and a Triggerthing gets to it, it’s a wipe, as you will not be able to kill it. As the tank, you must stay on the far out edges, maybe only using a pull in case of an emergency, help out where you can, but there’s not much for you to do. If you’re using impairs on adds, be sure to save one for re-engaging the boss in case of Macroshock.
Recursia will cast Infernal Criticality three times, summoning faster Triggerthings each time; the third time, she doesn’t actually shield herself anymore, even though it might look like it. Anima Eruption will also no longer be on a random group member, but always the tank. So after the third Infernal Criticality, dodge away from her, let her place the AoE on you, and then quickly move back closer to her, so she doesn’t come through the AoE she just cast and shield herself. From there, it’s basically a race to kill the boss before any of the adds get to her – which is where ALL THE CC comes in handy. She will also still cast Macroshock, so be sure to have at least one impair off cooldown for that. Try to drive her to the middle of the room (i.e. further away from the adds) – she will move away from you, so basically you want to stand between her and the adds, so she’d go the other way.
This is probably one of the more frustrating fights to learn to tank, and it’s also practically impossible to accurately describe in text, so don’t get upset if it’ll take you a while to succeed consistently. :)
Machine Tyrant
Have the DPS agree on cleanse 1 and cleanse 2. Run past the boss, without losing your sprint and go through the anima well so he follows you. Have whoever is cleansing first stand behind the well, in case he casts Lifeburn before you’ve gotten the shield down and grabbed aggro. Otherwise what can happen is that since you can’t attack the boss, the cleanse going off will pull aggro and he’ll go in a completely different direction than the one you want. Anima wells deal damage on e5+, so don’t stand in them. When his shield is removed, keep an eye on the debuff timer and move him through the next well when there is 6 or so seconds left on the debuff, this usually keeps the wells coming on time – if you take him through wells as they appear, with too much time left on the debuff, the next well might not be up in time of the next shield. But don’t let the timer run out completely – the reflect shield will insta-kill any DPS who has DoTs on the boss or who didn’t manage to cancel the attack on time, plus the shield being up means less DPS uptime. Since on e5+, the Tyrant has a 5-minute Enraged timer, you kind of need people alive and to be able to deal damage. As you go, impair Demolish as it comes up and keep in mind that the boss cleaves, so try not to kill your party members while moving him. If you need to turn him towards a well, either tell your DPS’ on voice which way you’re planning on moving, or start turning him slowly, so they can see what you’re trying to do and get out of the way. If you’re in a corner or near a wall turn him towards it, not the centre, that usually minimizes the risk of people getting cleaved.
The boss will periodically run to the centre to bomb the arena, use that time to find and go to the next well, as his shield will be up when he’s done. Once his HP is down past a certain threshold, he will no longer bring a shield up when leaving the centre. At that point (i.e. he comes away from the centre, but without a shield), run to a corner of the arena and stand there. The boss will run to you, but will not even attack you before running back to the centre to cast bombs again – the idea is to make that distance as long as possible, so the DPS’ can dps at their leisure as he just runs back and forth. You get to stand around and twiddle your thumbs, maybe taunt the boss out of boredom when he comes in range. Repeat until dead.
